In almost 25 years of serious birdwatching I had remarkably never made a visit to the beautiful RSPB reserve of Gwenffrwd/Dinas north of Llandovery as I've always thought of it as 'supermarket' birding always preferring the challenge of finding the species that Dinas is famous for locally.
I'd seen and photographed Wood Warbler and seen only Common Redstart locally this spring but had 'dipped' locally on Spotted and Pied Flycatchers.
On 23rd June close friend and fellow 'birder/togger' Dave Gilbert asked me if I fancied a trip to Pal-Y-Cwrt north of Ammanford to see and attempt to photograph Common Cuckoo as the previous day he had seen five Cuckoos at the site.
An early start saw Dave picking me up at 6.00am and we were soon heading west down the M4 arriving at our location at about 7.00am.
Juvenile Northern Wheatears were abundant as were several other species but a Cuckoo was nowhere to be found, I guess the fine warm weather had enticed them to move on and start their journey back to Africa.
Where to go next we thought, we could retrace our steps and call at WWT Penclacwydd, Llanelli but then Dave suggested Dinas and off we went.
We arrived mid-morning and the car park was quiet with only a few vehicles, we set off along the boardwalk and soon came across a pair of Common Redstarts attending young at a nest in a natural tree hole. A female Pied Flycatcher was seen at a distance but not photographed and we them spent some time along the banks of the beautiful river that skirts the reserve.
This held Grey and Pied Wagtails but best of all were a pair of Common Sandpipers one of which gave themselves up for some distant shots, it was joy to watch this species in their natural breeding habitat.
Late June is not the greatest time to visit the reserve as most species have already bred and young have left their nests.
We pushed on along the path to the left hand side of the reserve and came across a splendid Spotted Flycatcher who posed nicely on the only branch projecting from the bracken in the vicinity, what luck.
We also bumped into Paul Seligman from Cardiff and his partner Janet with another female birder that I was not familiar with, we duly chatted and shared information before parting company in different directions.
On our way back to the car park we came across the same pair of Common Redstarts still feeding their young and I spied a young looking Tree Pipit which posed nicely for some photos.
We were just about to leave after a cuppa and a sarnie when Paul Seligman pulled into the car park and gave us directions to a Pied Flycatchers' nest in a tree hole near the dam end of Llyn Brianne which was only 10-15mins drive away.
We followed Paul's instructions and after a little searching found the nest and managed some photos before giving in to the midges that were attacking us both.
Photography was not easy as the dense canopy blocked out so much light and the birds were more difficult to find than they would have been say 4-5 weeks earlier in the season.
Most shots were taken at ridiculously high ISOs and I'm amazed how well the Canon R5 copes with low light and performs at high ISO, the Pied Flycatchers at the end of the day were shot at 12,800 -20,000 ISO, my old Canon 7D MkII would never have coped !!
What a fabulous day out, this may have been my first visit but it won't be my last, my appetite for the reserve has been truly whetted for an earlier visit in spring 2023.
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